Before your very eyes

摘要

For most of us, the ability to see and interpret our surroundings is such an automatic part of everyday experience that we seldom pause to consider what an astonishing feat of analysis it is. We perceive colour, form and motion without even thinking about it. Yet computer scientists have struggled to develop robot vision that can deal with anything like the level of detail available to us in any visual field— the window on the world in front of our eyes. We instantly recognise familiar objects and quickly categorise unfamiliar ones. We recognise a chair as a chair whatever angle we see it from, even if it is upside down or partly hidden by a table. The subtle differences between human faces are enough for us to identify them instantly as those of particular individuals—even if we cannot always put a name to them. More astonishing still, we are able to appreciate the many facets of an intricate visual image simultaneously.